All you need is love

Along with the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, Los Angeles quintet Love were the originators of the West Coast psychedelic sound. Their third album, Forever Changes, released in 1967, is widely regarded as a classic of the era and remains a seminal influence on musicians to this day. With guitarist and chief songwriter Arthur Lee as the group’s oddball mastermind, the album boasted gorgeous string and brass arrangements, and a stellar collection of melodic, sometimes whimsical songs such as ‘Andmoreagain’, ‘Bummer in The Summer’ and ‘A House Is Not A Motel’.

But the group’s refusal to tour hampered their prospects internationally and they imploded in the late ’60s, destined to remain critics’ favourites. Their first three albums (Love, Da Capo and Forever Changes) have now been re-mastered and re-released to rave reviews while a Best Of has also been issued. A rejuvenated Lee, recently out of jail after serving five years on a firearms charge, is touring once again with a new version of Love playing songs from his illustrious past, along with new material. The band played a well received show at Dublin’s Ambassador last June. Now they’re back again, this time presenting the complete Forever Changes album – live.

“I’m overwhelmed that Forever Changes is regarded by some people as the greatest album ever,” Lee says. “It’s very gratifying to me that it’s considered up there with The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and the Beach Boys’ Pet Rock (sic). I wanted to make it timeless when I recorded it and I think I’ve succeeded. I had actually planned to retire when I was 21, though I was 22 when I got around to doing it so I was a year late. The idea was that I would get paid for the rest of my life for the album, which has happened – though it’s sometimes slow to come in.”

Lee was close to many leading music figures of the day including Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, whom he says he recommended to his label, Electra Records, after seeing the Doors in an LA club.

“Unfortunately I didn’t get a finder’s fee,” he laughs. “We were the first successful rock group on Electra Records which was really a folk label at the time. They devoted the money they made from Love to sign The Doors. Morrison took my old lady with him too! That’s exactly right. Pamela Courson who became Pamela Morrison was my girlfriend first. I didn’t know him that well, but when I woke up in the morning he’d be standing outside my house, wanting to talk and stuff. There were so many fans doing all kind of crazy things, putting marshmallows on my windows, hiding in the bushes. He was just another one of those guys to me.”

Lee was also a good friend of Neil Young who, legend has it, worked briefly on Forever Changes. “I get asked this question quite a lot and it’s true,” Lee explains. “Neil Young helped arrange a song on the album called The Daily Planet, which in my opinion is the worst song on the album (laughs). But I like old Neil and I’m proud of him and what he went on to achieve. I know all those guys but I never hung out with them. The only person I hung around with was Jimi Hendrix. In fact the first time he every played in a studio was on a song I had written called ‘My Diary’.”

Lee has refused to talk about his time in jail though he will admit to “finding” God while inside. “It was like being an eagle in a canary birdcage,” he says. “It was hell but God was testing me. I’m writing a book about it and it will give an honest account of everything in my life.”

Did he ever imagine that he would be touring and performing again after all these years?

“I thought about nothing else man. But I knew it would happen eventually.”